God is all truth and truth cannot initiate negative actions. God does not create confusion, chaos, or distraction in our lives. However, he does use them to move us forward seeking our destiny. All challenges and victories are accompanied with lessons. Everything in life is a learning opportunity. Do you believe and surrender all of who you are to God, or are you the architect of your own destiny?

A chosen life – lived so differently from the rest of the world-will forever hold the truth that apart from God, we have ‘no good thing’ (Psalm 16:2)

A chosen life is a surrendered life, a life that exalts Jesus Christ and follows Him in obedience.

I’ve heard this message in some form for three days now. Yes, it’s apparently personal, but we can all learn from this message.

My Take Away

The Lord told us we would experience good times and bad. Jesus suffered. Job suffered. David suffered. Countless men and women suffered in the Bible. What makes us any different? In each instance, the sufferer literally and figuratively fell to their knees and first asked God why are you doing this to me, or why are you allowing this to happen to me? We are projecting blame. After wallowing in our discomfort, we should reach the point where we change the conversation and ask God, what do you want me to learn from this? God will answer, but not until we fully surrender to Him and reiterate Jesus statement of God,

“Not my will, but your will be done.”
Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42 NIV

Faith

I read on FaceBook of all places – ‘Walking with God and not seeing where He is taking you is faith. Walking with God and demanding that he tell you where He is taking you is sight.’

“For we walk by faith and not by sight.”
2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

We cannot ask, what do you want me to learn if we cannot surrender to God first. If we still blame others, think we are always right,  remain stuck in our own stuff, there is no way we can hear God. There is too much white noise. White noise is noise containing too many frequencies with equal intensities.

The white noise is the selfish, fleshly you, the faithless you. The whiner crying why me! The person with the attitude confronting God. This may be an ‘ah-ha’ moment for some. When we are in this place, our faith is not authentic. It is solid when things are going well, and we are happy with God, but when things go wrong, we tend to blame God, our faith wanes. Our self-righteous selves question the creator of the universe, our God who created us, knew us before we knew ourselves, has a plan for us, loves us, is devoted to us, cares for us, and protects us.

Jesus said to the disciples, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?  Matthew 8:26 KJV

Surrender

Surrendering requires faith. When we surrender, we hand our lives over to God. We say, we will walk with you into the unknown, and will faint not. I read on FaceBook of all places – ‘Walking with God and not seeing where He is taking us is faith. Walking with God and demanding that he tell us where He is taking us is sight.’

Surrendering and living faith-filled life sounds easy, but if your fleshly self is a controller, is always right, strong-willed, and is comfortable mapping paths for themselves and others, it is not easy to hand the steering wheel over to God or anyone else. Surrendering is choosing dependence in, and obedience to, God and God alone. Our flesh fights dependence and obedience. They come in tandem, both are necessary factors required when we fully surrender to God our Father.

Back to the initial question – What is God telling you to do?

*He is telling you/us to surrender to Him, not to ask questions or reinterpret what He said to us – we must surrender all.
*He is telling you/us to follow Him, respond, yes God and Amen.
*He is telling you/us to be dependent and know He is God and created our life plan.
*He is telling you/us to remain obedient, even in the darkest hours. He will never leave us or forsake us.
*He is telling you/us to be quiet, know He is God and listen to His quiet voice directing our paths.
*He is telling you/us to love Him and trust Him with our lives.

When we surrender –
*We will be free,
*We will have real faith,
*We will be delivered, and God will lead us to our salvation.